Technical Abstract:
Chickens of Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory (ADOL) line alv6, known to develop spontaneous avian leukosis virus (ALV)-like lymphomas at two years of age or older, were inoculated either in-ovo, or at 1 day of age with strain SB-1 of serotype 2 Marek’s disease virus (MDV). Inoculated and uninoculated control chickens were monitored for development of spontaneous ALV-like lymphomas within 48-50 weeks of age. The data indicate that by 50 weeks of age, the incidence of spontaneous ALV-like lymphomas ranged from 4.5% to 7% in chickens inoculated with strain SB-1 of MDV in-ovo, and 10.5 % in chickens inoculated with virus at hatch, compared with 0% in uninoculated control chickens. Strategies to eliminate or reduce incidence of such spontaneous lymphomas will be discussed.